Separator systems have been used in the past with sea-going vessels to separate oil from bilge water before the bilge water is discharged overboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,986 discloses a separation system in which the contaminated water from the bilge is pumped to a gravity separator containing a bundle of parallel inclined separator plates. Larger oil droplets will rise along the plates to the top of the separator tank, while solid particles flow to the bottom of the tank for collection in a sump. In accordance with the system of the aforementioned patent, the collected layer of oil in the separator tank is discharged to an oil recovery location, while the effluent containing a minor amount of residual oil is conducted to a regenerative filter where the residual oil is removed from the water, so that the water can be safely discharged overboard.
The separating system as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,986 is utilized with relatively high flow rates in the neighborhood of 10 gallons per minute. However, there has been a need for a smaller, less expensive separating system that requires less floor space and can be used with smaller flow rates.